Labored breathing could be heard from down the hall. Dad had gotten sick, and he wasn't able to move from his position over the porcelain bowl as the noise from the tv filled his ears. But she hasn't moved from her seat in front of the tv to check on him. She hasn't moved since the Perplexor Program came on. Her eyes watch as the program shifts it's focus onto the "main event" of the night.

"Now folks, in a few minutes we'll be announcing this year's Puzzler contestants," a man says, smiling through gritted teeth.

The woman beside him looks almost mechanical as she follows along with their script.

"Now, Terry, why don't we explain what the Puzzler is for all those not too familiar with this event?"

"Great idea, Sharon! So folks, every year since the Partior War the government has followed through with the Puzzler Program. A program dedicated to helping twelve sixteen-to-eighteen-year-olds from any of our school districts become automatic successes in life."

"But it's not a victory just to be chosen, now is it, Terry? In order to become one of the top dogs, they have to make their way through the Puzzler within the allowed time."

"It's a real challenge and a test to how well our schools are preparing our kids for real life, but in the end, it's a reminder of how the gov- world works."

Static goes across the screen. When the show cuts back to the two anchors, Terry has been replaced. Sharon has become even more mechanical as she straightens the papers in front of her.

"On to the results from last year, Mac, will you do the honors?"

The new anchor flips the page on the packet that must have been Terry's mere moments ago.

"Of course, Sharon! Last year we had four teens make it out of the Puzzler. One even created a new record by making his way through in just five hours!"

"We have Alexis Garcia, a prominent lawyer and wonderful youth sponsor of the Optimum school district which she graduated from."

A picture of a tired nineteen-year-old comes on screen. Her left arm has been replaced by a more advanced prototype prosthetic and her hair has barely regrown past her shoulders.

"Next is our record holder, Damian Jeffers. He still attends Doctrina High in the Doctrina district. He's on his way to becoming a star athlete and businessman."

A picture of the seventeen-year-old replaces Alexis. At first glance, he appears normal until you see the trailing scars still visible on his arms.

The next victor is the same as the other two. From one of the better school districts, about to have an amazing career, visibly tired and scarred from their experience in the Puzzler. But the last victor is different.

Because he's dead.

She hears Dad retch in the toilet again and Hye-jin's eyes flutter shut. Three months after he escaped, he jumped from his grandmother's balcony. Four stories up and he ended up passing away. He was supposed to go into showbiz, be a famous actor or something.

Tears are rolling down Sharon's cheeks. The tv glitches again, and the screen turns to static. Sharon is gone, another anchor taking her place. A coffee cup is split over the table, but no one moves to correct it as coffee drips, slowly, over the side.

"Well folks," the newest anchor smiling, eyes unfocused on the camera, "it's the time that we've all been waiting for — it's time to announce the lucky contestants of the 48th Puzzler!"

Every person in the entire country is in front of a screen, no matter where they are, all holding their breaths as the first name is read off of the list.

"Lucky number one — sixteen-year-old, home school student, Hye-jin Hak."

Her father retches into the toilet and a sob echos in the porcelain. But she's frozen. They're reading off her government file. Her grades, her achievements, her family. Her mother's death. She's stuck in the moment.

But she's ready.

She knew that this day would come.

She can hear her heart trying to escape her chest.

She has to be ready.

Adrenaline pumps through his veins as he stands in front of his younger brother, facing the white-masked guards that have come to take his brother to the Puzzler. His heart threatens to climb out of his chest as a tear slips down his cheek.

David's only sixteen, barely sixteen. He hasn't even been with the Bakers for a year. He definitely isn't prepared to face something like the Puzzler. No one ever is, not really.

And Elijah Griffin isn't ready to see him die yet.

His foster parents haven't been able to move from where they were sitting when they called their son's name. Not in the right mindset to try to defend their newest foster.

The guards don't care. Their job isn't to protect the people, it's to protect the program.

"Step aside, boy."

"We only need David."

"You can't have him!"

"The Perplexor Program has stated–"

"I, I'll go. I'll take his place."

In a matter of minutes, the Perplexor channel has stripped his foster brother's information from the screen and the anchors reappear. The guards are standing at the door, prepared to grab him the moment their speeches are over.

"Well folks, we already have our first volunteer this year!"

"Meet the boldest so far – Elijah Griffin!"

They tell him he doesn't have time to say goodbye as his profile begins to scrawl down the tv screen. But he's not going anywhere until he can say goodbye to the people who have forever changed his life. He's volunteered to die for this family. Something he wouldn't have been brave enough to do if they hadn't pulled him from the system.

His foster mom's arms wrap around his neck as he whispers goodbye. But she pulls him back, just for a moment to kiss his cheek. Her cheeks are wet, stained with tears for her sons. She looks into Elijah's eyes for what could be the last time and whispers all that comes to mind.

"Don't let it change your heart."

Elijah knows what she means. And he's going to make sure that when he comes back to her, he'll be the same.

She sits rigid between her parents on the family couch. It's stiff, unused, uncomfortable.

Her family's closeness is evident in the photos framed around the pristine living room. The awards ceremonies of her classes. The pictures they took as she gained awards in track and field at her school. Trophies of all sizes and colors are placed with the pictures as well. Tall, silver ones that scream winner.

Yes... they are a very tight-knit family.

Athena holds her breath as she examines the photo of the first boy to volunteer. He looks tough, like maybe he could survive the Puzzler on his outward appearance alone. But that's not what her parents have taught her. Ever since she was born, they have been reminding her that the winners of the games are the smartest, quickest teens.

Hopefully, she will never be chosen.

But just in case she ever is, they have made sure that she is well prepared with skills that previous winners had.

A sound leaps from her mother's throat, as though she is gagging, sobbing, and hiccuping all at once.

Athena's eyes train onto her own as a photograph of herself replaces the volunteer's.

She almost stops breathing.

The pictures surrounding her seem to gawk down at her. The photos of her accomplishments and preparations swarm around her, mocking her in every way.

"You have been well prepared for this." The voices of coaches and tutors whisper in her mind.

"But what if I die?"

"We aren't paid to care."

He fidgets in the leather chair. Leg vibrating, up and down. Up and down.

His head snaps up from his hands as the office's wooden door opens with an obnoxious creak. But it's only another officer, his next babysitter for the few minutes he has left of being free.

Becket Harrington-Summers now knows a little more about the Perplexor Program, and the Puzzler, than he has ever wanted to know. Mainly that not every teenager sent into the game is chosen by chance.

Take himself for example. He's known that he was entering the games yesterday, when they caught him robbing the district's mayor's house down the street.

He'll admit it easily. He's a thief. And he's proud of it. Every skill he has learned and worked to perfect has been used to steal from the rich, even if he gives to himself. At least he only steals from government officials, or people deep in the Perplexor's pockets.

He soon learned upon his incarceration that the Puzzler is often used by the government to punish teenagers still in the age range for the games by sending them in with the hopes that they die horribly.

That's the government's mistake with him.

He's survived his entire life as a master of thievery and tricks. He's lived his entire life hating the games for making him an orphan.

The government's handing him his chance to ruin them from the inside.

Becket Harrington-Summers grins devilishly as the anchors call his name and plaster his profile on the tv. A smile wide enough to match the officer's when he looks to see Beckett's terrified eyes.

He doesn't give him the satisfaction of even thinking that he's scared.

Venus Bellamy sits alone in her parent's living room, watching as the last teen's athletic and academic accomplishments scrawl across the screen, unbeknownst of his real skills and accomplishments. Her younger sister is across the hall playing with her dolls, innocent of the world and the troubles currently surrounding them. Her parents had asked her to get Vida to watch the program, to see what her future might be. Venus didn't listen, she would do anything to keep her little sister far from the existence of the Puzzler.

If their parents were home they would have forced them to watch it all together. But they weren't there. They hardly ever were. And so they had no power over them when they were gone.

Venus hears the news anchor preparing to announce the fifth pick of the games. She only needs to get through seven more. Seven more and it won't be her. Seven more and she is safe until next year. After that, she's safe for the rest of her life.

She hears Vida call her name. Venus stands, preparing to go see what her little sister wants. Only it's as if the universe was waiting for the youngest Bellamy to call her sister's name. To wait until fate could mock her. Pausing just to make it all so ironic–

"Venus Bellamy!"

The world stops spinning, the air leaves her lungs. Venus can't even bring herself to react, to cry as she drops to her knees with a harsh thud.

Her knees scrape against the carpet, burning as she slips farther.

Venus can hear Vida, calling her name again. Only the sound is muffled from her ears as fear takes her soul whole.

And the universe grins as her fight begins.

This is the quietest he's ever seen the base. But silence does not equal peace. Everyone around him is holding their breath. Waiting to see who goes next. Desperate to see if they are going to lose someone they love to the monstrosity they have the nerve to call a game.

James Lim stands beside his father. He just barely shows a wince across his face as his father's grip tightens on his shoulder, despite his belief that he couldn't grip him any tighter.

In the past few days, the General has been increasing nice to him, as though he knew something James did not. He has spent more time with his father, that wasn't a training session or lesson, than he has in the past few years.

And the truth? It makes him more nervous than he's ever been for the Puzzler draws. His father isn't the most fatherly, in a sense. James knows that his father loves him, he takes the time to teach him things any instructor could himself. But he's been emotionally distant for most of James' life. Maybe he can blame it on the society they live in, his father has had to face death of some kind continuously for more years than James has been alive.

Only that doesn't excuse all the times his father has been distant from him.

And it doesn't explain his father's need to be so close to him now.

At least until he hears his name coming from the news anchor's lips. Until his father's grip slowly loosens entirely, as though he's going to have to let go now or he never will.

Something burns in his gut as the white masks arrive. It's ugly and twisted and mixed with a kind of fear he's never experienced before. As one takes him by the same shoulder his father held him by, the exact same way. It all clicks in James' mind and he almost trembles as he shakes the mask's hand off of him.

He looks back into his father's eyes for what could be the last time. He sees the old man's lips trembling as he mouths the only word he gets as a goodbye.

"Sorry."

This isn't chance. For some unknown reason, that his father had all the time in the world to explain to him, his entry into the Puzzler has been planned. Rage takes the place of his fear, and he turns away from his father into the nightmare he planned for him to face.

The family living room is beyond full. Her parents, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, and herself crowd around the tv attached to the wall. A general's son's profile is displayed in large letters on the screen. Adella Adams reads it carefully, she's been analyzing every single participant's profile as they are announced. She wants some knowledge of them ahead of time if she is chosen.

It's unlikely though.

She lost a cousin to the games last year. The draw is random, but no one has really seen a year-after-year pattern of picks from families. His name was Samuel Adams. No one really remembers him, or how close he got to winning. But no one talks about the ones that don't make it out alive. Barely anyone even remembers the ones that die.

She wishes that they did though. He deserves to be remembered. Adella can still see the tv screen from the end of the games last year, when Samuel and one of the victors from last year were making their way through their final puzzle. But one seemingly careless slip at the end and his partner didn't have the strength to save him.

Adella remembers thinking hero as she watched him fall to his death.

They had cut the screen to another angle before anyone could really see it. It almost gave them some kind of humanity. That they still had a private death as they were on display and fighting for their lives.

His partner was the one that killed himself. And Adella, Adella has a feeling that he couldn't live with the guilt of losing Sam. She knows that feeling well.

Lost in her thoughts of the past and swept up in reminiscing the griefs she's been through in her life she doesn't hear them say her name. She doesn't hear them reading her profile. She doesn't hear her mother crying.

Adella is forced out of her mind when one of her cousins, Samuel's younger sister, takes her breath away as she crushes her in a hug. Reality hits her hard as she looks around with no feeling in her eyes.

His grandma is muttering something along the lines of "poor thing" as they watch the profile of the last girl drawn scrawl down the screen. Colt's barely paying attention, Cassie and himself have a board game spread out between them. He pulled it out when the Perplexor Program came on in an attempt to help Cassie distract herself from her anxiety.

She always gets anxious when the Puzzler comes around. At least more anxious than she usually is. That's something that separates the twins. Colt has an effortless, careless nature about him. He tries things before thinking them through at all. And although it has gotten him in a few situations, his grandparents aren't the kind who try to keep him from doing it. Cassie, on the other hand, is probably most of the reason that he's still even alive. She seems to overanalyze things, and she always overthinks everything. It keeps them out of some trouble, but hesitating in the Puzzler wouldn't get out of a broken bone, it could kill you.

Their grandfather mutters something back to his wife, squeezing her hand in some form of comfort as the new anchors finish reading off the girl's profile.

"Your turn."

Cassie shakes herself out of her head and grabs the cup to roll the dice in again. It's actually her third turn in a row, any other day and he would have already beaten her at the game.

That's when he hears it from the other room.

Her name, Cassie's name.

But Cassie only heard their last name, Trennon. She looks at him with that concern and fear growing in her wide eyes. He chokes on his words as his grandparents begin to cry softly across the hall.

"Colt? Who is it?"

He takes one look into her eyes, and that's it.

"Me, Cas," he says it weakly, almost unsure.

He manages to keep her away from the tv. He accepts all the hugs and goodbyes his grandparents keep trying to give Cassie. And then they get it, and the white masks arrive.

"We're here for-"

"Me!" He nearly screams at him, putting himself between his sister and the masks, chest trembling, "you're here for me."

Cassie gets back inside just in time to see Colt's profile take the place of her own. Before they can close the door of the black car that's been sent to take him to the Puzzler, Colt hears her scream.

Laverna sits with her brother as the Perplexor Program plays on the tv. She has it muted, talking to him instead of listening to the awful drawl of profile after profile.

"You can't go back in it, you don't have to worry about the games anymore."

She squeezes her brother's hand, but he's still muttering under his breath. Laverna'a brother, Gnanan, was a winner two years ago when he was sixteen. But he didn't come back the same, in fact, he barely came back at all.

But that's what Srinivasan's do, they win.

Her mother won her Puzzler, one of three victors.

Her father had never been chosen.

Gnanan won his, one of seven victors.

And now it's her turn.

She was told by her mother that morning to expect to see her profile on the screen around the eighth or ninth draw. She is the ninth.

Laverna squeezes her brother's hand one more time as she turns off the tv. She smiles sweetly down at him, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek before leaving the room.

She walks down the spiraling staircase of her parent's home with a smile. Gold accents the mostly green and black manor. It commands a person's immediate attention and respect on-site, same as a Srinivasan.

And now it's her turn, to make her family proud...

Margaux Royce always knew that this day would come. She assumed it would come for her, not her brother who had fallen horribly ill. But nonetheless, Margaux is taking his place.

Her father stands beside her as they watch the Srinivasan's daughter's profile scrawl down the screen. It's not surprising to either of them, politicians who won the Puzzler in their times usually lead their children to do the same. That's how Leander Royce knew that one of his twins would be chosen, one day.

They made it to eighteen before Max was picked.

They made it to eighteen before Margaux was prepared to volunteer in his place.

They made it to eighteen before he had to tell them more about the world than he hoped he ever would.

His children are soldiers by design and practice. Leander knows that Margaux can survive. He's shown her how to. She's proven time and time again that she can protect herself. That she's a brilliant mind. That she can lead. He's directed her through the first nine teenagers to who he would try to get close to. And who to stay far away from.

She stands subconsciously closer to him as a breeze whips past them on the open sidewalk. The pair stands in front of a store selling televisions. They were warned that this was coming, and as soon as the masks vehicle appears, Leander will have to go. But for now, he wraps his arm around his daughter, squeezes her close to his side, and presses a kiss to her forehead.

He can see the black car getting closer, armored and blacked out, it's more obvious than anything. But it's a clear sign that their time is at an abrupt end.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

He takes her by the shoulders, looking into her eyes one more time.

"Don't let it take you, my daughter. Don't let it change you."

It's like he was never beside her, never holding her as he disappears with the wind.

But Margaux Royce is smiling.

"Mom, I can't feel my fingers anymore."

Ronnie whispers to her mom, pulling her hand toward herself a little to try to convince her mother to let her go. She doesn't. But she understands why.

Her parents were sixteen when they had her. They thought that they would be able to make it through the next three Puzzlers okay. For a while they did. Until the Puzzler when they were eighteen, that one got her dad.

Veronica "Ronnie" Evans remembers exactly what her father looked like and who he was. Every moment she ever shared with him seems to have stuck with her every year since she was three. That's when they lost him.

Ever since that day the two depended on one another. Ronnie was, of course, a toddler who truly needed her mother in every way. But Jane Evans needed Ronnie as a handhold for life.

She knows that her mom is just worried that she'll lose her too. And it's worth almost losing her hands if she doesn't get chosen.

But she does.

Jane Evans doesn't let go.

She doesn't let go of her little girl when the masks arrive. When she's screaming and yelling and beating on them to let her little girl go. It brings Ronnie to tears to see her neighbors rushing over to grab onto her mom before she gets herself in trouble.

Ronnie cries as they drive her away from her childhood home. As she hears her mom screaming and sobbing as she fights their friends. As the silent white masks sitting on either side of her become a tense reminder of where she's going– and how close she really is to death. And to her father.

His eyes are glued to the screen as the eleventh participant's profile is shown. He takes it all in, just like the ten others before her. Jasper Donovan has had the exact same routine every single year when the Puzzler comes around.

He wakes up early, starts breakfast for his parents, sits in front of the tv, and evaluates every single participant in case he's called next.

Does he expect to be chosen?

Not really.

These things usually happen to kids who come from nowhere or who really come from somewhere. Jasper Donovan fits neither, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been prepared.

He's had classes and camps meant to make him more prepared. But he likes to rely on his more favored skills. Jasper has the unique ability of being able to determine a lot about a person just by looking at them. It's not extremely unique, it's actually more of a really well-trained skill.

He can pick up emotions, tones, and stances and their meanings in seconds. He can examine how a person carries themself and know all about their upbringing.

Jasper's eyes widen as the newest profile comes across the screen.

"Mom? Dad?"

His parents poke their heads into the room, smiling and a little wet from washing the dishes. Except he's frozen, staring at his own profile as it scrolls across the screen. His mouth opens to say something, but only one thing comes out.

"What the f–"

and that's chapter one folks!! I hope that you enjoyed it and I would love to hear all of your thoughts (and feelings) about this chapter!!

I know that it's a long one (4.2k words) and that it has so much information BUT this is the best way to introduce all twelve of our characters as well as their families, backgrounds, and little pieces about each.

again, I hope that enjoyed it!! if you haven't seen my message board or insta stories, than just let me tell you, this book and it's plots and it's characters are driving me mad SO hopefully I'll be able to get the next update ready soon <3

don't freak out on me if it takes a little while though!! since this is all of my brain and my brain only we get a little tired creating an entire universe ourselves, as well as the character work and making sure that we write things nicely AND foreshadow just enough to where nothing screams in your face until it's too late, just give me love and time <3

love you all so much 💕
[ 10.09.2022 ]